Juicing Q&A: How to help the liver & colon eliminate more effectively?

I’m currently on the second week of a new juice cleanse, my longest so far being 17 days. When you were juicing, did you drink a laxative tea like Smooth Move, ingest Senna, use Psyllium Husk or have colonics done? I was just wondering about what you would suggest for helping my liver and colon eliminate waste more effectively.

First off, congrats on your juice fasts! These are amazing achievements. And thanks for your question. Helping the body detox efficiently by assisting the two most important elimination organs, the liver and colon, is really crucial. It ain’t a sexy conversation I concede but quite honestly, colon and liver cleansing are the most effective and long lasting beauty regimen you could ever adopt. The key to radiant and flawless skin lies there. Can’t imagine any cream or miracle potion that could ever come close to the beautifying power of inner cleanliness.

I personally feel that thorough colon cleansing and liver detox are the most important aspects of any juicing program. Applying the principles outlined in Norman Walker’s Colon Health Key to Vibrant Life and Dr Jensen’s Guide to Better Bowel Care (I use his bentonite clay and psyllium husk shakes religiously) has been the real breakthrough for me in terms of optimum health and well being. So I can’t recommend them enough.

In answer to your question, I don’t use Smooth Move or Senna. Harsh laxatives aren’t something that have ever felt right for me. But colonics? Hell, yes! They’re absolutely critical in my opinion and experience. Before embarking on my first 92-day juice fast I had a professional hydrotherapy unit installed at home! That’s how strongly I feel about the importance of colon cleansing. Especially during a juice fast. Fasts are times of intense detoxification and it’s of vital importance to release the toxins as quickly and efficiently as possible so they are not reabsorbed by the body.

As far as the liver is concerned, thorough bowel care is tremendously beneficial to the liver so I’d start there. I also use Cascara Sagrada during all of my juice fasts (short and long). It’s pretty much the only herb I use. It provides amazing liver support.

I’ve also done lots of liver flushes (more than a dozen) both before and after completing my juice fasts and they’re phenomenal. I’ve never done them during a juice fast because I use avocados (I’ll discuss my liver flush protocol in a different post) but in my experience doing the olive oil/grapefruit & epsom salt flush a few days after completing a fast is absolutely amazing.

So these are my three essentials during a juice fast (in addition to daily colonics): Yerba Prima Bentonite Clay (it absorbs 40 times it’s own weight in toxic substances!), Whole Psyllium Husks (best intestinal broom, hands down) and Cascara Sagrada (Nature’s Way is my fave because it comes in vegan-friendly veggie caps).

“I’ve never done them during a juice fast because I use avocados (I’ll discuss my liver flush protocol in a different post)…”

Ndoema, I recently stumbled across your site because of your posts on juice feasting; I initially read the above quoted comment a few days ago, and it’s honestly been bothering me ever since. How do you use avocados during a juice fast to detoxify your liver? I’m sorry if you did write a follow-up post and I just haven’t found it at your site yet, but I am extremely intrigued. I am on Day 5 of my first major juice feast (shooting for 2 weeks but I’m thinking I may just want to continue into May)… I’ve juice fasted before, but juice FEASTING is an entirely different animal! That being said, I have a little avocado in my cupboard that I keep looking at, wondering how it might be incorporated into this great nutritional undertaking of mine. Do you puree your avocado and mix it with another juice? Do you take it with herbs? How do you use your avocados? Searching elsewhere online has only unearthed the thought that an avocado during a juice feast/fast will slow the body’s detoxification because of the extra fiber and fat it has to process–so I’d love to hear your reply, if you have a moment or two. Thank you very much.

I use Sonne’s psyllium and bentonite with my second master cleanse and they sure are amazing! Have you done the master cleanse? I find it works better than juice because the villi in the intestines go down and enables deep cleaning of the colon wall. This is definitely more of an intermediate cleanse and avg folks shouldn’t be done if the body isn’t prepared for it. Next will be an advanced cleanse with the colema board.

Congrats. I haven’t done the master cleanse. To be honest I’m not into ingesting maple syrup (which is highly processed). I prefer natural sugar derived from fruit so I’m doing orange or grapefruit cleanses instead and I love them.

Hello there beautiful, I cannot even begin to tell how life changing raw living foods have been for me., without coming across as highly exaggerating : sleep, concentration, no more depression, weight loss, lovely skin on my back, face. It’s become more than just a beauty thing, it has also become a change to a higher awareness of me, of spirit. So many miracles have taken place since I have embarked on this at times challenging, but beautiful journey. My blind, and mentally handicapped daughter Pia, does not have so many epileptic attacks since we juice, and, she is calmer and sleeps through each night. The bee pollen does wonders for me. I am so grateful to have been lead to you. Thank you for your generous sharing of information, for your beautiful posts and the care you put into them. I am on a quest to go natural with my hair now, something I would never have done before, but, I want to return to me. God bless and thank you again. So grateful.

How lovely! Thanks so much for sharing, Rozanna. I am deeply touched and genuinely thrilled for all these wonderful inner and outer transformations. I wish you and Pia much happiness, peace and radiant health! xoxo